(no subject)
He lied. Rose doesn’t know why it bothers her so much. He was just some random drunk she met on New Year’s. 1,025.
Author's Notes: For Challenge 50. My first challenge! Based on takethewords ’ prompt:
but it takes us years
to forget someone
who merely looked at us
Also, since this is my first challenge (I'm not used to working under a time-crunch), things are not quite as good as I like them. I promise that in the future there will be a bit more polish.
***
He lied.
Rose doesn’t know why it bothers her so much. He was just some random drunk she met on New Year’s who was so out of it that he couldn’t even remember what day it was. But there was something about him, something imperceptible but important. She can't recall what he looked like, just that he was sad and alone and yet despite all that, he looked at her like she was the world. He didn't even know her, but he believed in her.
Maybe that was it. No one believed in her anymore. Hell, she didn't believe in herself anymore. And then some complete stranger told her that she was going to have a really great year and in that instant she believed him because he, without pretense, believed in her. Believed that despite her dead-end job at the shop, her lack of A-levels, and her rising credit card debt, she was about to experience something fantastic.
It’s just like her. She keeps dreaming of a way out of the monotony and so when someone offers her a way out-even just the hope of a way out-she clings to it. It really explains the whole Jimmy Stone fiasco that she’d rather forget.
Jimmy was a dreamer, too. She hates him now, but just a year ago he was everything she’d ever hoped for. Rose loved the way he seemed to know everything and how he had traveled all over England to find himself and his music. And even though her mother and Mickey told her she was being stupid and foolish, she ignored them. She needed an escape from the Powell Estate and Jimmy was her ticket out. So she dropped out of school and pursued being a professional groupie.
It started out fast and sexy and fun. Jimmy adored her and whenever they went on gigs, she relished in the fact that all the girls stare her down, jealous. But then things began to chip away. She spent less time in Jimmy’s bed and more time lifting amps onto the stage of a smoky, smelly bar. He didn’t buy her flowers anymore; in fact, he expected her to pay for dinner most of the time. “I’ll pay you back when we make it big, baby,” he promised.
Worst of all, she never got further than Leadworth. Leadworth. They didn’t even have ducks in their duck pond. Rose envied those ducks. They obviously got out with their dignity intact.
Despite Jimmy’s many and various faults, he understood Rose's urge to do something more. Something bigger. Something better. No one else has ever understood that part of Rose. Her mum gave up years ago. Pete Tyler had been the dreamer of the two, and his death has made Jackie even more certain that life was to be lived inside the lines.
As for Mickey, well, Rose loves Mickey. She really does. He’s loyal and he loves her and she’s pretty sure he would ask her to marry him in an instant if she gave him the slightest sign of interest. But Mickey isn’t exciting and he has no desire to leave the safe confines of the Estate. Rose sometimes thinks he stays to punish himself for his grandmother’s death: that if he works hard enough for the people around him, it'll make up for the fact that he never fixed the carpet on the stairs.
She asked him once if he'd ever want to go away.
"Go where?" he asked.
"I don't know. Anywhere. There's gotta be somewhere you want to go."
"I could take you to see Les Mis."
Rose shook her head. "No, Mickey. I mean somewhere--somewhere. Like, Australia or Africa or somewhere where it's all totally and completely different. Where we could be different."
"I love you just the way you are," he said. "You love me, too, yeah?"
"’Course I do, Mickey," she said.
He pulled her into his arms and pressed a kiss on top of her hair. “Isn’t that enough?” There's only one answer to that question.
“Yeah.” She wished she meant it.
Mickey took her to Les Mis that weekend anyway. No one can say that he doesn’t try.
***
She wakes up this morning to the blaring alarm like she always does. Work at Henrik’s, lunch break with Mickey, dinner with mum, go to bed, and then repeat. She barely has to think. Or maybe she just doesn't need to think anymore.
And then suddenly in the middle of all that routine she finds a hand in hers and is told to run and things are different. She saves this man-this man who can lock doors with a blinking blue light and can feel the earth move beneath his feet-and she suddenly feels a purpose. It’s not like Jimmy at all. With Jimmy, she was waiting for him to save her. She was never an equal. And even though The Doctor is older and cleverer, he doesn’t treat her like she needs to be coddled. He's barely met her and already he believes in her.
But when The Doctor asks if she wants to go away with him, "anywhere in the universe free of charge", she hesitates. She's taken this risk before--leaving the Powell Estate, leaving mum, leaving Mickey--and she crashed and burned. He's not Jimmy, but she feels the same sense of abandon with him and it scares her.
It isn’t until the blue box returns and The Doctor casually adds on, “By the way, did I mention it also travels in time?” that she remembers what the man in the shadows told her on New Year’s. She can hear the promise in his voice, see the sincerity in his eyes. She was going to have a really great year. She just had to make the choice to make it great.
She kisses Mickey and runs toward the future, the past, outer space-all of it! And as the TARDIS lurches to worlds unknown, she wonders if that poor old drunk could have imagined half of the wonders she was about to see.
She likes to think that he could.
Author's Notes: For Challenge 50. My first challenge! Based on takethewords ’ prompt:
but it takes us years
to forget someone
who merely looked at us
Also, since this is my first challenge (I'm not used to working under a time-crunch), things are not quite as good as I like them. I promise that in the future there will be a bit more polish.
***
He lied.
Rose doesn’t know why it bothers her so much. He was just some random drunk she met on New Year’s who was so out of it that he couldn’t even remember what day it was. But there was something about him, something imperceptible but important. She can't recall what he looked like, just that he was sad and alone and yet despite all that, he looked at her like she was the world. He didn't even know her, but he believed in her.
Maybe that was it. No one believed in her anymore. Hell, she didn't believe in herself anymore. And then some complete stranger told her that she was going to have a really great year and in that instant she believed him because he, without pretense, believed in her. Believed that despite her dead-end job at the shop, her lack of A-levels, and her rising credit card debt, she was about to experience something fantastic.
It’s just like her. She keeps dreaming of a way out of the monotony and so when someone offers her a way out-even just the hope of a way out-she clings to it. It really explains the whole Jimmy Stone fiasco that she’d rather forget.
Jimmy was a dreamer, too. She hates him now, but just a year ago he was everything she’d ever hoped for. Rose loved the way he seemed to know everything and how he had traveled all over England to find himself and his music. And even though her mother and Mickey told her she was being stupid and foolish, she ignored them. She needed an escape from the Powell Estate and Jimmy was her ticket out. So she dropped out of school and pursued being a professional groupie.
It started out fast and sexy and fun. Jimmy adored her and whenever they went on gigs, she relished in the fact that all the girls stare her down, jealous. But then things began to chip away. She spent less time in Jimmy’s bed and more time lifting amps onto the stage of a smoky, smelly bar. He didn’t buy her flowers anymore; in fact, he expected her to pay for dinner most of the time. “I’ll pay you back when we make it big, baby,” he promised.
Worst of all, she never got further than Leadworth. Leadworth. They didn’t even have ducks in their duck pond. Rose envied those ducks. They obviously got out with their dignity intact.
Despite Jimmy’s many and various faults, he understood Rose's urge to do something more. Something bigger. Something better. No one else has ever understood that part of Rose. Her mum gave up years ago. Pete Tyler had been the dreamer of the two, and his death has made Jackie even more certain that life was to be lived inside the lines.
As for Mickey, well, Rose loves Mickey. She really does. He’s loyal and he loves her and she’s pretty sure he would ask her to marry him in an instant if she gave him the slightest sign of interest. But Mickey isn’t exciting and he has no desire to leave the safe confines of the Estate. Rose sometimes thinks he stays to punish himself for his grandmother’s death: that if he works hard enough for the people around him, it'll make up for the fact that he never fixed the carpet on the stairs.
She asked him once if he'd ever want to go away.
"Go where?" he asked.
"I don't know. Anywhere. There's gotta be somewhere you want to go."
"I could take you to see Les Mis."
Rose shook her head. "No, Mickey. I mean somewhere--somewhere. Like, Australia or Africa or somewhere where it's all totally and completely different. Where we could be different."
"I love you just the way you are," he said. "You love me, too, yeah?"
"’Course I do, Mickey," she said.
He pulled her into his arms and pressed a kiss on top of her hair. “Isn’t that enough?” There's only one answer to that question.
“Yeah.” She wished she meant it.
Mickey took her to Les Mis that weekend anyway. No one can say that he doesn’t try.
***
She wakes up this morning to the blaring alarm like she always does. Work at Henrik’s, lunch break with Mickey, dinner with mum, go to bed, and then repeat. She barely has to think. Or maybe she just doesn't need to think anymore.
And then suddenly in the middle of all that routine she finds a hand in hers and is told to run and things are different. She saves this man-this man who can lock doors with a blinking blue light and can feel the earth move beneath his feet-and she suddenly feels a purpose. It’s not like Jimmy at all. With Jimmy, she was waiting for him to save her. She was never an equal. And even though The Doctor is older and cleverer, he doesn’t treat her like she needs to be coddled. He's barely met her and already he believes in her.
But when The Doctor asks if she wants to go away with him, "anywhere in the universe free of charge", she hesitates. She's taken this risk before--leaving the Powell Estate, leaving mum, leaving Mickey--and she crashed and burned. He's not Jimmy, but she feels the same sense of abandon with him and it scares her.
It isn’t until the blue box returns and The Doctor casually adds on, “By the way, did I mention it also travels in time?” that she remembers what the man in the shadows told her on New Year’s. She can hear the promise in his voice, see the sincerity in his eyes. She was going to have a really great year. She just had to make the choice to make it great.
She kisses Mickey and runs toward the future, the past, outer space-all of it! And as the TARDIS lurches to worlds unknown, she wonders if that poor old drunk could have imagined half of the wonders she was about to see.
She likes to think that he could.